Dr. Tatjana Sekelj Ivančan was born in Varaždin in 1963, and completed her education in Zagreb. She graduated in Archaeology (single major) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb in 1988. In 1992, she defended her Master’s dissertation “Mediaeval sites in northern Croatia – the state of research and statistics of mediaeval sites in continental Croatia until 1991”. She defended her doctoral dissertation (“10th to 13th century settlements of the Sava–Drava Interfluve – archaeological evidence”) at the Department of Archaeology of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb in 1999. She has been working at the Institute of Archaeology since 1989, and has held the title of scientific advisor since 2011.

From 1997 to 1999 she was co-ordinator of the bilateral international project with Slovenia entitled “Fortification systems between Šentjernej and Samobor with special emphasis on Gorjanci/Žumberak and in the valleys of the rivers Krka and Kupa“. From 1998 to 2001 she led a project for young scholars entitled “Typological-chronological analysis of ceramics in northern Croatia – 10th–13th century“. From 2002 to 2006 she led the scientific project of the Institute of Archaeology approved by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports entitled “An archaeological picture of the mediaeval settlements of the Podravina region“. From 2007 to 2013 she led the scientific project “Mediaeval settlement in northern Croatia in the light of archaeological sources“, and from 2010 to 2013 she led the scientific project “Genesis and continuity of the material culture of the Croats“, which includes six scientific projects of the Institute of Archaeology. From 2010 to 2012 she was Assistant Director of the Institute of Archaeology.

In 1990 she was awarded a scholarship to attend a seminar in Aquileia (Italy) entitled “Protostoria e storia di Aquilei e dell' arco Adriatico“. She received the “Josip Brunšmid“ annual award of the Croatian Archaeological Society for the scholarly monograph “Podravina in the Early Middle Ages“, 2012.

In 1997 she launched the first archaeological trial excavations at Orešac-Luka and then trial excavations at Zvonimirovo – a yard belonging to house No. 34 near Virovitica, and has since continuously managed systematic, targeted scientific archaeological investigations of several sites in the vicinity of Torčec (Ledine, Cirkvišče, Gradić, Blaževo pole, Prečno pole I, Pod Panje, Pod Gucak, Rudičevo), systematic excavations of the early mediaeval workshop complex Virje - Volarski breg and Sušine. She also manages investigations on large-scale infrastructural projects for the protection of cultural heritage on motorway routes (Virovitica – Brekinja and Osijek – Jagodnjak) and is deputy manager of the projects Virovitica – Korija, Feudal town of Vrbovec, Crkvari – church of St. Lawrence (Sv. Lovro), Buzadovec-Vojvodice and Novi Čeminac-Remanec, Krčevine. She also participated in numerous archaeological investigations throughout Croatia.

Since 2007, she has been participating in individual postgraduate teaching on the doctoral programme in Archaeology and is a member of committees for grading postgraduate Master's and PhD dissertations in Archaeology, and is also a member of expert commissions for appointments to academic titles in Humanities, field of Archaeology, at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. She is a member of the organising committee of the international scientific conference “Cemeteries and burial customs in the mediaeval and early modern period in northern Croatia“ (Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, 2014).

She is co-author of the museum exhibition “New archaeological investigations in Podravina“ at the Koprivnica Municipal Museum (2003), and also participated in the realisation of the exhibition “Rescue archaeology of the multi-layer sites Virje – Volarski breg“ (2008, 2010) and “Delovi – Grede 1“ (1982), at the Koprivnica Municipal Museum (2011). She is co-author of the museum exhibition “Archaeological site Buzadovec-Vojvodice“ (Vrbovec, 2013) that has become a part of the permanent display of the Museum Collection of the Vrbovec Open University, Castle Patačić.

Since 2005 she has been a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal “Contributions of the Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb“ and until 2013 she was a member of the publishing council of the journal “Annales Instituti Archaeologici“. She has been a member of the editorial council of the journal “Cris, a Journal of the Križevci Historical Society“ since 2003 and of the journal “Podravina, a journal for multidisciplinary research“ since 2012. She is also a member of the editorial council of the journal “Studia archaeologica Slovaca mediaevalia“, published by the Slovanská akamémia vied, Filozoficá fakulta Univerzity Komenského, Bratislava (II/1999 and III-IV/2000-2001). She is also the editor-in-chief of several monographs dealing with mediaeval subjects, and a reviewer of several renowned scientific monographs of Croatian archaeology. She has been a member of the Croatian Archaeological Society since 1982.